The Season of Lent

Jesus and
John the Baptist each spent time fasting (going
without eating) in the desert before entering into ministry.

Fasting is one way Christians prepare to serve God. The season of Lent is a time of preparation for the death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ on EasterSunday. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, when pastors
mark the foreheads of Christians with ashes
as a reminder that all Christians are created from dust and to dust they
shall return.

Lent follows Jesus from his adult ministry through his
suffering during Holy Weekto his crucifixion and death on Good Friday. The Psalms
foretold what would happen during that week.

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday,
also called the Sunday of the Passion, and continues through Holy Thursday
(when Holy Communion was instituted at the Last Supper)
and Good Friday, when Jesus was tried, crucified,
and buried.

Because the Last Supper was celebrated during the Feast
of the Passover, which is calculated on the phases of the moon, Easter is
called a movable feast. Lent is scheduled backward from Easter. Easter falls on the first Sunday
after the full moon after the spring equinox. The forty days of fasting
and penitence during Lent do not include Sundays. Christians always celebrate
Sunday as the day Jesus rose from the dead, so it is never a day of fasting.

Many Northern Europeans celebrate the day before Ash Wednesday,
mardi gras (French for Fat Tuesday, also called Shrove Tuesday),
by eating up everything good in the house that medieval Christians believed
was inappropriate to eat during Lent (eggs, milk, butter, cream, meat).
This celebration has expanded into all sorts of festivals all over the world.

Most modern Christians do eat some - or all - of those
foods during Lent, following a modified fast.

Lent is a time of stripping down to essentials, as each
Christian focuses on his or her individual relationship with God. No one
asks another person to do without or to suffer during Lent - the sacrificial
observance is private and personal. No Christian uses Lent an as excuse
for self-righteousness. The focus of Lent is to study more deeply, to pray
more sincerely, and to show greater kindness.

During Lent Christians remember their baptisms,
when Jesus washed away all sins, giving newness of life to celebrate the
triumph of Palm Sunday and the glory of Easter.
Many early Christians were baptized on Easter Sunday, so Lent became a special
time of study and prayer in preparation for their baptisms. Later entire
congregations joined in the study and prayer as they looked forward to the
anniversaries of their baptisms on Easter.

Because Lent is a time of letting go of the bondage
of sin, it is also a time of celebrating the freedom from the bondage
of slavery. At the Feast of the Passover, all Jews
give thanks for their freedom from the captivity of the Egyptians.

And Christians give thanks for the freedom of all slaves
in every culture everywhere when they sing Go Down, Moses (With One
Voice 670).

"Grains of Wheat (Una Espiga)" from the Libro
De Liturgia Y Cantico, published by Augsburg Fortress, is a good
communion hymn to teach to children to learn how Jesus brought the sacrament
of Holy Communion into everyone's lives.